The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, March 22, 1920, Page 6

Official Magazine of the National Nonpartisan League—Every Week OLIVER S. MORRIS, Editor. Entered as second-class matter at the postoffice at Minneapolis, Minn., 'under the act of March 8, 1879. Publication address, 427 Sixth avenue S., Minncapolis, Minn. Subscription, one year, in advance, $2.50; six months, $1.50. Classified advertising rates on classified page; other advertising rates on application. Address all letters and make all remittances to The Nonpartisan Leader, 427 Sixth avenue S., Minneapolis, Minn. Member of Audit Bureau of Circulations. The S. C. Beckwith Special Agency, advertising representatives, New go, St. Louis, Detroit, Kansas City. POLITICAL EMBEZZLEMENT : O CRIME is more contemptible than embezzlement. The law provides fitting punishment for the man who takes money, given him in trust, and uses it himself. Public opinion goes even farther. A western saying is: take a smart man to fool his friend; any crook can do that once.” Men who are elected to office and use their public position and public funds for private propaganda are political embezzlers. But we are not at this time referring to William Langer and Carl Kositzky of North Dakota. We are referring to official propa- ganda in favor of compulsory military training. . The office of surgeon general, Washington, D. C., is one that is using public funds to send broadcast statements supporting this form of Prussianism. This apologist tells about the friends that American soldiers made among French children as an argument for military training and war! “It has ever been thus,” he writes. “The Great Hearts of the world have always been friends of the children. Roosevelt, the Rough Rider, shows by his letters that the big, natural, simple-hearted man found his keenest pleasure in associating with his little children.” Such drivel is unworthy of answer, we quote it merely to show its utter lack of logic. . The same publicity service carries the indorsement of J. W. Alexander, secretary of commerce in Wilson’s cabinet.” Another instance; this time of the abuse of a quasi-public position, is furnished by letters being sent the rounds by H. C. Hotaling of Minneapolis, executive and field secretary of the Na- S : i PolLiTiCAL EMBEZZLER COMMON EMBEZZLER tional Editorial association, and using the association’s letter- heads. Mr. Hotaling was so unwise as to use the association’s let- terheads to send out letters, a year or so ago, attacking j:he Nonpartisan league. We promptly “called” him on that occasion. He is a little more careful now and inserts a paragraph specifically stating that he is doing his propaganda work this time on his per- sonal responsibility. But why use the letterhead of the. associa- tion? For what other reason could this be than to convince the careless reader that the association was behind his action? We do not accuse Mr. Hotaling of using the association’s fund to send out his literature (doubtless the munition manufacturers are able to pay postage for him and pay for the paper he is using), but Hotaling is clearly using the authority given him for one purpose for an entirely different purpose. And that same action, applied to money, is embezzlement. e A NEW SEDITION BILL ONGRESS is considering a new sedition bill since the un- C -fairness of the Sterling, Graham and Davey bills has been exposed. The new bill, by Congressman Husted, is drawn, he claims, to meet objections raised against previous bills. It contains this provision: : * % % No person shall advocate, advise, threaten or attempt: the use of physical force or violence * with intent thereby to effect or promote the destruction or change of the form of,the government of the United States or the subversion of any of its powers or functions. ; The act carries a penalty of 10 years’ imprisonment. . What is the objection to this proposed law? Jackson H. Ralston, eminent constitutional lawyer of Washington, D. C., ex- presses it thus: ; ; This bill is fundamentally as dangerous as those proposed by Senator Sterling, Mr. Graham and Attorney General Palmer. No overt act is required to prove intent. Every person in America will be at the mercy of what interpretation some spy, informer, pros- ecuting attorney, judge or jury may put upon his spoken or printed words. That means the end of freedom of speech and press, as has been proven over and over in all nations and ages. Nor are labor " PAGESIX * - . : ' % o = “It doesit’t oo e e e e A A AR . ; _organizations safe from persecution. It would be easy for a federal judge to discover that deeds done or not done in a labor strike were ‘the use of “physical force,” the purpose of which were to “sub-_ vert a power or function” of the government of the United States— an injunction, for example. ? , PREACHING TO THE FARMERS ; "E HAVE had occasion before to refer to a cartoon drawn by John M. Baer long before he became a congressman. It showed a farmer working in his field, while bankers, editors and politicians sat on a fence, telling him that he must work harder and longer, produce ‘more, practice better farming, etc., etc. The farmer said to all of them: “It’s HELP I need, not advice.” ; e That cartoon is especially pertinent today when so-called “farm papers,” city dailies, politicians, lawyers and other cheap publicists are raising a continual chorus of: “The farmer must. work longer and harder; labor must work longer and harder; there Y\ [BECONTENT] G WITH YOUR LOT Y PROFITEER must be no increase in wages or farm prices; more must be pro- duced to keep prices down.” : 2 It is true that after the waste of five years of war, the world has need of greater production. But greater production can only be attained by offering fitting rewards to the producers. Farm prices in the past year have not allowed the average farme: to break even, to say nothing of taking a profit. i : Preaching to farmers and workingmen that they must be con- tent with their lot, that their only task is to work harder and pro- duce more for less money, will never get any one anywhere. It %}nlipds one of the old Indian proverb, reduced to verse by Rudyard ipling: i e = “The toad beneath the harrow knows : Just where each sharpened tooth-point goes; x The butterfly beside the road : Preaches contentment to the toad.” > The farmers and workingmen of America are not fools. They know that present high prices, which are crushing them down, are not caused by their earnings but by unrebuked profiteering. If the “butterflies beside the road” who are now preaching" contentment and increased production to the farmers and wage- workers really want to do something, let them go after the prof- _iteers. Then the prqduction problem will take care of itself. ; ; KILL THE FEDERAL GRADES : : B HAVE desired for some weeks to. acknowledge receipt “of a United States department of agriculture bulletin en- titled “Why Country Buyers Do Not Apply Federal Grades.” The bulletin cites reasons to the extent of something more than 1,000 words. These grades have been in existence since 1916 and the best that the department can say as to their use is: “Reports from the different grain states are to the effect that. HERE AND THERE country grain buyers are buying wheat from . the farmers by federal grades.” % Rollin E. Smith, author of the bulletin, could have saved labor by “boiling” his excuses down to these 15 words: - : “Country buyers do not apply federal grades because fgderal grades are unworkable and no good.” £ And then he would have been telling the exact: truth. Doctor E. F. Ladd and the Nonpartisan Leader were virtually @ 3 S ,J\:\ C\_$ é?‘ -the only opponents of the proposed federal grades when, in 1916, Charles E. Brand made his famous trip around the country, liping up millers, elevators and grain buyers in favor of them. During _the war the failure of the federal grading system was acknowl- edg:ed by t.he food administration, which set the grades aside as far - as it wag in their power to do so. The senate committee on agri- culture adopted an official resolution condemning the grading sys- tem. Brand-was forced out of the department. But the grades still remain. z : : o If Edwin T. Meredith, the new secretary of agriculture, wants - . to do something in behalf of the farmers, let him drop the policy of former Secretary Houston of ‘defending and excusing the fed- - eral grades and KILL THEM. ~_, e L